Incan GPS and the ethics of knowing (double click the photo for better detail)

Machu Pichu should be considered a wonder of the world. Built over 500 years ago without any cement, lined perfectly with the stars, the moon and the sun, this dynasty of the Incan empire is awe-inspiring even though it is in ruins, and half buried under 500 years of natural growth.

When it was discovered in the 1900s (from the point of view of Western society that is, because sometime in the 1400s it discovered itself) there were two Quechua families living in it.

Today Llamas live in it, and tourists by the bus load come up to visit every 30 minutes. But between the construction of Machu Pichu and the most recent tourist bus to arrive, there were 500 years of knowledge and understanding lost, that we may never be able to fully comprehend.

The GPS is above a stone that the Incans used for a compass. The stone is shaped like the Southern Cross (that intensely bright constellation that Northern Hemisphere types may never get to know), and is, as according to the GPS incredibly accurate.

We need satellites to find our way now, but the Incas used rocks. They relied on the stars to navigate themselves, and now, thanks to our means of getting around, the poisonous pollution clouds that choke our cities throw the stars from the sky.

The Incas understood stone work to such a degree that they didn't even bother to use cement. Brickwork was a temporary fixture compared to their masonry which still lasts to the day, and was purposefully designed to withstand earthquakes. Making buildings stand up during an earthquake is a completely lost science in Latin America.

What other ways of knowing were lost over time? The Spaniards, waving bibles, dogs and guns did a good job to blame a lot of what they didn't know (astronomy, medicine, hygiene, manners, and respect for the natural environment) to witchcraft and acts of the devil. Words of the bible were shoved into the Incan folk, and if that failed bullets went in shortly thereafter. From fear of what they saw, Spaniards justified repeated attacks on the Incans, because this witchcraft could only be made sense of by forcing the creators into a state of indebted labour.

How many pains of the world have been caused by too little understanding and too much fear to seek new ways of knowing?

At this conference in Ottawa that I’m at, a man wearing a suit and showing signs of eating more than he should, asked us if we thought that the research ethics committee should restrict research based on deemed use and importance.

What the hell? The Spanish inquisition did not even have the fallacy to summon an ethics board before administering an execution, I thought.

In all the knowledge that we've done so well to destroy, perhaps none better is the ability to learn from our mistakes.